This invention relates to battery or cell testing; and more particularly, to the measuring of the remaining capacity, and therefore the useful remaining life, of a battery of cells or a single cell.
Various battery or single cell testing devices are, of course, available on the market and have been available for some time. However, to applicant's knowledge, no easily operated testing device that provides a measure of the remaining capacity, and therefore the remaining useful life, of a battery cell has been devised.
Knowledge of the remaining capacity of a battery or cell provides more significant information about that battery or cell than can be provided by a tester that merely indicates, for example, whether the battery or cell is good, bad or weak. If a battery or cell checks "good" with such a tester, all that one knows about that battery or cell is that it was good at the time the test was made. The tested battery or cell may have very little remaining capacity and would under load become completely discharged or discharged to a useless level in a very short period of time after the good-bad test was performed. Thus, even though this battery or cell tested out as good, it really was nearly exhausted. Normally, one would not want to purchase such a battery or cell and normally would not purchase such a battery or cell if he was aware of the fact that very little capacity remained. Further, one would normally not want to use such a battery or cell in a piece of battery operated equipment knowing that the battery or cell would have to be replaced very shortly. Insofar as is known by applicants, no remaining capacity battery or cell testing devices that can be operated by lay persons have been devised prior to this invention.
Various systems and methods have been devised for measuring the remaining capacity of a battery or cell. These prior art systems generally require trained personnel to perform the remaining capacity test and generally laboratory type systems that are not very adaptable to general commercial or industrial use.
This invention provides battery or cell testing apparatus that can be operated by lay persons. The apparatus of this invention is relatively simple and therefore, a battery or cell tester designed according to this invention is suitable for general commercial and industrial uses. Further, by providing appropriate known metering devices, a direct read out of the remaining capacity can be obtained. In addition to being specifically utilized as a battery or cell testing device, the two embodiments of this invention can be used to measure the chemical change that has taken place in any device that undergoes a chemical change wherein the reaction products are spatially separated; and therefore, the invention has broader utility than just a battery or cell tester.